Mali swore in an interim prime minister on Thursday, just days after soldiers behind this year’s military coup arrested his predecessor and forced his resignation. The new prime minister, Diango Cissoko, officially took office in the capital, Bamako, where he said the former prime minister, Cheick Modibo Diarra, would be available as needed during the political transition. In recent weeks though, Mr. Diarra had taken stances that sometimes conflicted with the coup leader, Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo. Captain Sanogo has maintained his hold on Mali since the coup in March, and the political instability has raised concerns about a proposed military intervention to retake Mali’s north from radical Islamists. The African Union on Thursday welcomed Mr. Cissoko’s appointment despite the circumstances under which Mr. Diarra left office.
World Briefing | Africa: Mali: Interim Prime Minister Sworn In
Label: WorldState of the Art: Google Maps App for iPhone Goes in the Right Direction - Review
Label: Technology60 Seconds With Pogue: Google’s Map App:
David Pogue reviews Google’s newly released map app for the iPhone.
It was one of the biggest tech headlines of the year: in September, Apple dropped its contract with Google, which had always supplied the data for the iPhone’s Maps app. For various strategic reasons, Apple preferred to write a new app, based on a new database of the world that Apple intended to assemble itself.
As everybody knows by now, Apple got lost along the way. It was like a 22-car pileup. Timothy Cook, Apple’s chief executive, made a quick turn, publicly apologizing, firing the executive responsible and vowing to fix Maps. For a company that prides itself on flawless execution, it was quite a detour.
Rumors swirled that Google would create an iPhone app of its own, one that would use its seven-year-old, far more polished database of the world.
That was true. Today, Google Maps for the iPhone has arrived. It’s free, fast and fantastic.
Now, there are two parts to a great maps app. There’s the app itself — how it looks, how it works, what the features are. In this regard, few people complain about Apple’s Maps app; it’s beautiful, and its navigation mode for drivers is clear, uncluttered and distraction-free.
But then there’s the hard part: the underlying data. Apple and Google have each constructed staggeringly complex databases of the world and its roads.
The recipe for both companies includes map data from TomTom, satellite photography from a different source, real-time traffic data from others, restaurant and store listings from still more sources, and so on. In the end, Apple says that it incorporated data from at least 24 different sources.
Those sources always include errors, if only because the world constantly changes. Worse, those sources sometimes disagree with one another. It takes years to fix the problems and mesh these data sources together.
So the first great thing about Google’s new Maps is the underlying data. Hundreds of Google employees have spent years hand-editing the maps, fixing the thousands of errors that people report every day. (In the new app, you report a mistake just by shaking the phone.) And since 2006, Google’s Street View vehicles have trawled 3,000 cities, photographing and confirming the cartographical accuracy of five million miles of roads.
You can sense the new app’s polish and intelligence the minute you enter your first address; it’s infinitely more understanding. When I type “200 W 79, NYC,” Google Maps drops a pin right where it belongs: on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Apple’s Maps app, on the other hand, acts positively drunk. It asks me to clarify: “Did you mean 200 Durham Road, Madison, CT? Or 200 Madison Road, Durham, CT?”
Um, what?
And then there’s the navigation. Lots of iPhone owners report that they’ve had no problem with Apple’s driving instructions, and that’s great. But I’ve been idiotically misdirected a few times — and the trouble is, you never know in advance. You wind up with a deep mistrust of the app that’s hard to shake. Google’s directions weren’t great in the app’s early days either, and they’re still not always perfect. But after years of polishing and corrections, they’re right a lot more often.
The must-have features are all here: spoken driving directions, color-coded real-time traffic conditions, vector-based maps (smooth at any size). But the new app also offers some incredibly powerful, useful features that Apple’s app lacks.
Street View, of course, lets you see a photograph of a place, and even “walk” down the street in any direction. Great for checking out a neighborhood before you go, scoping out the parking situation or playing “you are there” when you read a news article.
Along with driving directions, Google Maps gives equal emphasis to walking directions and public transportation options.
This feature is brilliantly done. Google Maps displays a clean, step-by-step timeline of your entire public transportation adventure. If you ask for a route from Westport, Conn., to the Empire State Building, the timeline says: “4:27 pm, Board New Haven train toward Grand Central Terminal.” Then it shows you the names of the actual train stops you’ll pass. Then, “5:47 pm, Grand Central. Get off and walk 2 min.” Then, “5:57 pm, 33rd St: Board the #6 Lexington Avenue Local towards Brooklyn Bridge.” And so on.
Even if public transportation were all it did, Google Maps would be one of the best apps ever. (Apple kicks you over to other companies’ apps for this information.)
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 14, 2012
The State of the Art column on Thursday, about a new Google Maps application for the iPhone, misstated the type and, because of an editing error, the number of businesses for which interior views are available. It is 100,000, not 100, and the number includes many kinds of businesses, not just restaurants.
Recipes for Health: Red Cabbage, Carrot and Broccoli Stem Latkes — Recipes for Health
Label: Lifestyle
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
I love finding things to do with broccoli stems. I find that allowing the cabbage mixture to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before forming the latkes allows the cabbage to soften a bit, and the latkes hold together better.
5 cups shredded red cabbage
1/2 pound carrots, shredded (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups shredded peeled broccoli stems
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons oat bran
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 eggs, beaten
About 1/4 cup canola, grape seed or rice bran oil
1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment and place a rack over another sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together the shredded cabbage, carrots, broccoli stems, baking powder, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, salt, oat bran, flour, cornmeal and buckwheat flour. Taste and adjust salt. Add the eggs and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Begin heating a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill with 3 tablespoons of the mixture. Reverse onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining latke mix. You should have enough to make about 30 latkes.
4. Add the oil to the pan and heat for 3 minutes or until hot. When it is hot (hold your hand a few inches above – you should feel the heat), slide a spatula under one portion of the latke mixture and transfer it to the pan. Press down with the spatula to flatten. Repeat with more mounds. In my 10-inch pan I can cook four at a time without crowding; my 12-inch pan will accommodate four or five. Cook on one side until golden brown, about four to five minutes. Slide the spatula underneath and flip the latkes over. Cook on the other side until golden brown, another two to three minutes. Transfer to the rack set over a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.
5. Serve hot topped with low-fat sour cream, Greek yogurt or crème fraîche.
Yield: about 30 latkes, serving 6
Advance preparation: You can prep the ingredients and combine everything except the eggs and salt several hour ahead. Refrigerate in a large bowl. Do not add salt until you are ready to cook, or the mixture will become too watery, as salt draws the water out of the vegetables.
Nutritional information per serving: 226 calories; 14 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 93 milligrams cholesterol; 20 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 151 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 7 grams protein
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
Recipes for Health: Red Cabbage, Carrot and Broccoli Stem Latkes — Recipes for Health
Label: HealthAndrew Scrivani for The New York Times
I love finding things to do with broccoli stems. I find that allowing the cabbage mixture to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before forming the latkes allows the cabbage to soften a bit, and the latkes hold together better.
5 cups shredded red cabbage
1/2 pound carrots, shredded (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups shredded peeled broccoli stems
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons oat bran
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 eggs, beaten
About 1/4 cup canola, grape seed or rice bran oil
1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment and place a rack over another sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together the shredded cabbage, carrots, broccoli stems, baking powder, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, salt, oat bran, flour, cornmeal and buckwheat flour. Taste and adjust salt. Add the eggs and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Begin heating a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill with 3 tablespoons of the mixture. Reverse onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining latke mix. You should have enough to make about 30 latkes.
4. Add the oil to the pan and heat for 3 minutes or until hot. When it is hot (hold your hand a few inches above – you should feel the heat), slide a spatula under one portion of the latke mixture and transfer it to the pan. Press down with the spatula to flatten. Repeat with more mounds. In my 10-inch pan I can cook four at a time without crowding; my 12-inch pan will accommodate four or five. Cook on one side until golden brown, about four to five minutes. Slide the spatula underneath and flip the latkes over. Cook on the other side until golden brown, another two to three minutes. Transfer to the rack set over a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.
5. Serve hot topped with low-fat sour cream, Greek yogurt or crème fraîche.
Yield: about 30 latkes, serving 6
Advance preparation: You can prep the ingredients and combine everything except the eggs and salt several hour ahead. Refrigerate in a large bowl. Do not add salt until you are ready to cook, or the mixture will become too watery, as salt draws the water out of the vegetables.
Nutritional information per serving: 226 calories; 14 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 93 milligrams cholesterol; 20 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 151 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 7 grams protein
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
Degrees of Debt: Colleges’ Debt Falls on Students After Construction Binges
Label: Business
John Freidah for The New York Times
Harvard University continues to expand its Allston campus as part of a multibillion-dollar effort to maintain its position atop the academic heap.
Some call it the Edifice Complex. Others have named it the Law of More, or the Taj Mahal syndrome.
A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill.
Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011 at the more than 500 institutions rated by Moody’s, according to inflation-adjusted data compiled for The New York Times by the credit rating agency. In the same time, the amount of cash, pledged gifts and investments that colleges maintain declined more than 40 percent relative to the amount they owe.
With revenue pinched at institutions big and small, financial experts and college officials are sounding alarms about the consequences of the spending and borrowing. Last month, Harvard University officials warned of “rapid, disorienting change” at colleges and universities.
“The need for change in higher education is clear given the emerging disconnect between ever-increasing aspirations and universities’ ability to generate the new resources to finance them,” said an unusually sobering introduction to Harvard’s annual report for the fiscal year ended in June.
The debate about indebtedness has focused on students and graduates who have borrowed tens of thousands of dollars and are struggling to keep up with their payments. Nearly one in every six borrowers with a student loan balance is in default.
But some colleges and universities have also borrowed heavily, spending money on vast expansions and amenities aimed at luring better students: student unions with movie theaters and wine bars; workout facilities with climbing walls and “lazy rivers”; and dormitories with single rooms and private baths. Spending on instruction has grown at a much slower pace, studies have shown. Students end up covering some, if not most, of the debt payments in the form of higher tuition, room and board and special assessments, while in some instances state taxpayers pick up the costs.
Debt has ballooned at colleges across the board — public and private, elite and obscure. While Harvard is the wealthiest university in the country, it also has $6 billion in debt, the most of any private college, the data compiled by Moody’s shows.
At the Juilliard School, which completed a major renovation a few years ago, debt climbed to $195 million last year, from $6 million in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2002. At Miami University, a public institution in Ohio that is overhauling its dormitories and student union, debt rose to $326 million in 2011, from $66 million in 2002, and at New York University, which has embarked on an ambitious expansion, debt was $2.8 billion in 2011, up from $1.2 billion in 2002, according to the Moody’s data.
The pile of debt — $205 billion outstanding in 2011 at the colleges rated by Moody’s — comes at a time of increasing uncertainty in academia. After years of robust growth, enrollment is flat or declining at many institutions, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. With outstanding student debt exceeding $1 trillion, students and their parents are questioning the cost and value of college. And online courses threaten to upend the traditional collegiate experience and payment model.
At the same time, the financial crisis and recession created a new and sometimes harrowing financial calculus. Traditional sources of revenue like tuition, state appropriations and endowment returns continue to be squeezed, even as the costs of labor, health care for employees, technology and interest on debt have generally increased.
Students are requiring more and more financial aid, a trend that many believe is unsustainable for all but the wealthiest institutions.
“We’ve had a lot more downgrades than upgrades in the last five years,” said John C. Nelson, managing director of the higher education and health care practice at Moody’s, which has a negative outlook on all but the top state universities and private schools. “There is going to be a thinning out of the ranks.”
For now, the worst financial struggles are confined to stand-alone professional schools and small, tuition-dependent private colleges. For instance, $63 million in debt has left Mount St. Mary’s University, a small Roman Catholic college in Maryland, with thin financial resources and junk-rated credit, according to a Moody’s rating in March.
“We borrowed a lot of money, but we had no choice,” said Thomas H. Powell, the university’s president, who maintains, despite the credit rating, that it has regained its footing and has no need for additional debt. “I wasn’t going to watch the buildings fall down.”
Almost no one is predicting colleges will experience default rates on par with those of indebted students and graduates, at least not anytime soon. While payments on debt principal and interest have increased over all, they remain a manageable piece of the expense pie for most institutions, partly because of historically low interest rates, financial analysts said.
IHT Special: Internet-Driven Fame and Fortune for Mideast Comedians
Label: World
DUBAI — While the world watched the demise of Egypt’s political leadership last year, some Egyptians were tuning online to YouTube clips lampooning the Egyptian state channel’s fumbling version of the events.
In early 2011, Bassem Youssef began filming clips in his laundry room to provide comic relief amid a crumbling political situation in his home country. His work struck a chord with a wide audience. A year and tens of millions of views later, Mr. Youssef — a heart surgeon by profession — is now the host of Egypt’s first live political satire show on television.
His bold show — modeled after Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” — tackles topics that were once taboo under the regime of the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, including political corruption and religious extremism.
Money has been quick to follow the success. At one point, he received financial backing from the Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris while his show aired on ONtv, a liberal Egyptian channel. Since then, the show “El Bernameg,” meaning “The Program” in Arabic, has moved to CBC, another Egyptian channel with a wider audience, airing an episode every Friday. It has secured sponsors and a brand-new venue.
“We were always afraid, and when we started, there were always problems with the military, because we use satire and humor as stinging weapons of truth,” Mr. Youssef said via a Skype call from Cairo.
“We’re doing something right because now we get bigger budgets that have gone to renovating the theater where we film and to our researchers and writers,” he said.
When he appeared as a guest on “The Daily Show” this year, Mr. Youssef said there was more money in comedy than in cardiology. It seemed like a joke, but similar examples of Internet-driven fame and fortune are cropping up across the region, from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates, as political satire and sophisticated forms of comedy turn into widely watched and profitable entertainment.
“Stand-up content is what feeds into movies, talk shows and witty sitcoms,” said Jamil Abu-Wardeh, managing director of J.A.W. Media, a creative agency that produces original content for Web, television and stage, and founder of www.standub.com, a resource for all things funny in the region.
Mr. Abu-Wardeh also produced the Axis of Evil comedy tour, which introduced stand-up comedy to the Middle East.
“Stand-up comedy is evolving into a real industry today,” he said.
Comedy has always had a role in Arab entertainment. Egyptian and Kuwaiti theater plays were the most popular — featuring popular actors. Slapstick sketches dominated television comedy.
Since being introduced by the Axis tour and Mr. Abu-Wardeh’s team, a stand-up culture featuring a quick-witted comic on stage with a microphone, slowly evolved and gave rise to the variety now seen in the region today, including political satire.
This shift happened in parallel with the rise of YouTube over the past several years, giving audiences the opportunity to choose between entertainment programmed by broadcasters on television and unknown funny clips by random people online.
The changes have penetrated even the most conservative countries. While experimenting with small, local stand-up events in Saudi Arabia, Fahad Albutairi and his producer, Ibraheem al-Khairallah, began a YouTube channel called La Yekthar last year, on which they posted satirical clips.
They created an alligator mascot that has become a branding tool. Millions of views online led to ticketed events, and eventually, the team started a full-fledged video and events production company called Luxury Events KSA. Mr. Khairallah, whose day job is in advertising, managed to convince the telecommunications operator Mobily to sponsor a full month of comedy events.
Now, soft drink and electronics brands want to be in their coveted “presenting sponsor” slots. Comedy is winning a big chunk of the audience. Statistics from Argaam.com, which is an online statistics portal with data on different sectors, including media and stock markets, show that comedy attracts an average of 40 percent of the four million Saudi YouTube views per day.
Comedy has become a serious business.
After Deportation, John McAfee Returns to U.S.
Label: Technology
MIAMI (AP) — John McAfee, the antivirus software pioneer, arrived in the United States on Wednesday night after being deported from Guatemala, where he had sought to evade police questioning in the killing of a man in neighboring Belize.
Johan Ordonez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
John McAfee at the airport in Guatemala City. He was deported from that country and arrived in Miami on Wednesday night.
A commercial jet carrying Mr. McAfee landed in Miami shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Greg Chin, a spokesman for Miami International Airport.
A short time later, a posting on McAfee’s Web site announced that he was at a hotel in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood. Mr. McAfee has frequently communicated through the Web site.
“I have no phone, no money, no contact information,” the post says. Reached by telephone at the hotel, Mr. McAfee said that he could not talk because he was waiting for a call from his girlfriend.
Other passengers on the flight said that Mr. McAfee, 67, was escorted off the aircraft before everyone else.
Maria Claridge, a 36-year-old photographer from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said, “He walked very peacefully, chin up. He didn’t seem stressed.”
She said he was well dressed, in a black suit and white shirt, and appeared to be traveling alone.
An F.B.I. spokesman in Miami, James Marshall, said in an e-mail that the agency was not involved with Mr. McAfee’s return to the United States. Authorities from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Marshals office and the United States attorney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about whether Mr. McAfee would be questioned or detained. They said there was no active arrest warrant for Mr. McAfee that would justify taking him into custody.His expulsion from Guatemala marked the last chapter in a strange, monthlong odyssey to avoid police questioning about the November killing of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull, who lived a couple of houses down from McAfee’s compound on Ambergris Caye, off Belize’s Caribbean coast.
Recipes for Health: Cabbage, Carrot and Purple Kale Latkes — Recipes for Health
Label: Lifestyle
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
These latkes are nutrient-dense, packed with health promoting sulfur compounds as well as vitamins K, A, C, and manganese, tryptophan, calcium, copper, vitamin B6, iron, and potassium. In order for this mix to hold together it requires a little more egg and flour; I use a combination of cornmeal, all-purpose and buckwheat.
5 cups finely shredded cabbage (about 1 1/4 pounds, or half of a small cabbage)
2 cups finely chopped purple kale or curly green kale
7 to 8 ounces carrots, peeled and grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 serrano chili, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground or crushed
3 tablespoons oat bran
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 eggs, beaten
About 1/4 cup canola, grape seed or rice bran oil
1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Place a rack over another sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together the cabbage, kale, cilantro, chili, baking powder, salt, cumin, oat bran, flour, cornmeal and buckwheat flour. Taste and adjust salt. Add the eggs and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then stir again.
3. Begin heating a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill with 3 tablespoons of the mixture. Reverse onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining latke mix. You should have enough to make about 20 latkes.
4. Add the oil to the pan and when it is hot (hold your hand a few inches above – you should feel the heat), slide a spatula under one portion of the latke mixture and transfer it to the pan. Press down with the spatula to flatten. Repeat with more mounds. In my 10-inch pan I can cook four at a time without crowding; my 12-inch pan will accommodate four or five. Cook on one side until golden brown, about three to four minutes. Slide the spatula underneath and flip the latkes over. Cook on the other side until golden brown, another three minutes. Transfer to the rack set over a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.
5. Serve hot topped with low-fat sour cream, Greek style yogurt or crème fraîche.
Yield: About 30 latkes, serving 6
Advance preparation: You can prep the ingredients and combine everything except the eggs and salt several hour ahead. Refrigerate in a large bowl. Do not add salt until you are ready to cook, or the mixture will become too watery as salt draws the water out of the vegetables.
Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 206 calories; 13 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 93 milligrams cholesterol; 20 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 148 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 7 grams protein
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
Recipes for Health: Cabbage, Carrot and Purple Kale Latkes — Recipes for Health
Label: HealthAndrew Scrivani for The New York Times
These latkes are nutrient-dense, packed with health promoting sulfur compounds as well as vitamins K, A, C, and manganese, tryptophan, calcium, copper, vitamin B6, iron, and potassium. In order for this mix to hold together it requires a little more egg and flour; I use a combination of cornmeal, all-purpose and buckwheat.
5 cups finely shredded cabbage (about 1 1/4 pounds, or half of a small cabbage)
2 cups finely chopped purple kale or curly green kale
7 to 8 ounces carrots, peeled and grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 serrano chili, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground or crushed
3 tablespoons oat bran
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 eggs, beaten
About 1/4 cup canola, grape seed or rice bran oil
1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Place a rack over another sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together the cabbage, kale, cilantro, chili, baking powder, salt, cumin, oat bran, flour, cornmeal and buckwheat flour. Taste and adjust salt. Add the eggs and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then stir again.
3. Begin heating a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill with 3 tablespoons of the mixture. Reverse onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining latke mix. You should have enough to make about 20 latkes.
4. Add the oil to the pan and when it is hot (hold your hand a few inches above – you should feel the heat), slide a spatula under one portion of the latke mixture and transfer it to the pan. Press down with the spatula to flatten. Repeat with more mounds. In my 10-inch pan I can cook four at a time without crowding; my 12-inch pan will accommodate four or five. Cook on one side until golden brown, about three to four minutes. Slide the spatula underneath and flip the latkes over. Cook on the other side until golden brown, another three minutes. Transfer to the rack set over a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.
5. Serve hot topped with low-fat sour cream, Greek style yogurt or crème fraîche.
Yield: About 30 latkes, serving 6
Advance preparation: You can prep the ingredients and combine everything except the eggs and salt several hour ahead. Refrigerate in a large bowl. Do not add salt until you are ready to cook, or the mixture will become too watery as salt draws the water out of the vegetables.
Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 206 calories; 13 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 93 milligrams cholesterol; 20 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 148 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 7 grams protein
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
High Cost Leads Canada to Study Plans to Buy F-35s
Label: Business
Canada said Wednesday that it would reconsider plans to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets after an independent audit found that the sophisticated stealth planes would cost substantially more than the government had promised.
The decision was an unusual step back by Stephen Harper, the prime minister, who has been a strident defender of the purchase despite widespread public criticism of the price. Two cabinet ministers said an independent panel would review a variety of options, including a version of Boeing’s Super Hornet fighter as well as sticking with the F-35, made by Lockheed Martin.
“We have hit the reset button and are taking the time to do a complete assessment of all available aircraft,” Rona Ambrose, the public works minister, told reporters in Ottawa.
The announcement came after the auditor, KPMG, estimated that Canada would spend $45.8 billion to buy and operate the planes over 42 years, the expected life span.
When Peter MacKay, the defense minister, first announced Canada’s plan to buy the F-35 in 2010, he said the purchase price was $9 billion, but declined to provide operating cost estimates. The next year during an election campaign, the Conservatives put the total cost over 20 years at $16 billion.
If Canada were to back out of the project, it would be a blow to Lockheed and the Pentagon, which is counting on foreign sales to help reduce the cost of building each of the planes.
The F-35 was conceived as the Chevrolet of the sky, a radar-evading aircraft that could be built relatively cheaply and adapted to the needs of the Air Force, Navy and Marines.
But almost from the start, development of the planes and their sophisticated gear proved far more costly and difficult than anticipated.
The plane is now projected to be the most expensive weapons program in history, with the Pentagon spending $396 billion to buy 2,443 planes by the late 2030s. The United States is counting on 10 allies to buy at least 700 more.
To meet the Pentagon’s targets of $79 million to $106 million a plane, depending on the model, Lockheed needs to increase its economies of scale by spreading the costs across as many planes as possible. Canada’s hesitancy about the project could add to worries among the allies about the plane’s cost.
This year, economically troubled Italy cut its planned F-35 order by 30 percent. Britain and Australia have delayed decisions on how many F-35s to buy. And lawmakers in the Netherlands are also questioning the jet’s cost.
The Pentagon and Lockheed have stepped up their efforts to reassure those countries and persuaded two others, Israel and Japan, to sign on.
“You have to wonder when a slip becomes a slide with this program,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. “This is not a simple question of a fighter from a new generation all by itself in the market. There is price pressure and there’s a growing cost-consciousness among all customers.”
Until recently, the ruling Conservative Party in Canada swiftly rejected any suggestion that the country not buy the F-35s. Two years ago, Mr. Harper said that critics of the acquisition were “playing politics with the lives of our men and women in uniform.”
But after the office of the Auditor General of Canada released a report in March indicating that the planes would cost much more than the $16 billion the government had indicated, Mr. Harper’s aides began edging away from the program and hired KPMG to produce the new cost estimates.
Ms. Ambrose and Mr. MacKay repeatedly used the word “reset” on Wednesday and avoided questions about what that step would mean in evaluating alternatives. The ministers and officials, however, did make it clear that no decision had been made to start a formal competition among aircraft manufacturers and acknowledged that it remained possible that Canada would stick with the F-35.
The review, Mr. MacKay said, would “ensure that a balance is maintained between the military needs and taxpayer interests.”
Canada’s concerns about the costs of the F-35s come as American officials worry that the F-35’s huge price tag could make it a target for budget cutters in Washington as well. The Pentagon has already slowed the program to fix technical problems and reduce the immediate costs.
Pentagon and Lockheed officials sought on Wednesday to play down the developments in Canada.
Lt. Col. Melinda F. Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the KPMG cost estimate for Canada was in line with the Pentagon’s current projections for the cost of the planes.
She said that Canada’s decision to review its options seemed similar to a high-level review the Pentagon conducted in 2010 when problems were mounting with the planes. Top Pentagon officials determined then that they had no alternative that could provide the same capability.
Lockheed issued a statement noting it had worked with Canada’s armed forces for 50 years and looked forward to continuing the relationship.
The KPMG study said that if Canada wanted to stick to the original $9 billion price, it would be able to buy only 55 planes.
Possible alternatives to the F-35 include an updated version of Boeing’s F/A-18 Hornet, called the Super Hornet, and several European models. The Royal Canadian Air Force currently flies CF-18s, a version of the Hornet. While some of Canada’s jets date back about 30 years, Mr. MacKay said Wednesday that the fleet could be kept operational for at least another decade.
In the past, Mr. MacKay and others have emphasized the need for Canada’s next generation of fighters to include the radar-evading stealth technology found on the F-35. But several military analysts in Canada have noted that the country’s air force had not been actively involved in first strikes, where stealth would be most crucial. Others have questioned using the single-engine F-35 for patrols in remote Arctic regions, a primary mission for Canada’s military.
Separately on Wednesday, the government also reduced its estimate of business that Canadian companies were likely to win from F-35 contracts to $9.8 billion from $12 billion.
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